a little girl, who we are guessing is about five or six years old, and was dragged there and put on display by her mom

Hmm, let’s see. Then there is

the Sierra Club

Nebraskans for Peace

Indigenous Environmental Network

No Tar Sands Oil Coalition

Guardians of the Good Life

All sound like folks just like you and me, eh?

Well, here is the deal kids: Jane Kleeb and her gang of liberals aching for the days of protesting Against The Man have become adept at putting together all the scare tactics (and plush animals) that they can muster. Their goal is to, whenever and whereever they can, fight their enemy du jour, The Oil Companies.

Here is the irony in all this:

It’s not about the Pipeline. It’s about their hatred for OIL.

Bold Nebraska first stepped out as a group who paid for ads against Republican House members, like Lee Terry, saying that they were bought and paid for by Big Oil.

And Bold put their web site up and banged the drum about the standard lib causes and positions.

Then they got involved in “The Pipeline.”

Except it has never really been about the Keystone XL Pipeline.

They hate the tar-sands oil, going from Canada to Texas that runs through it.

So they have run a massive scare campaign, (somehow) based on the Gulf spill, to stop the pipeline altogether.

Oh, they’ll stand on the capitol steps and yell about insurance, and spill safety and eminent domain.

But you’ll note that the webkinz that they are handing out have a tag that yelps, “Stop the TransCanada Pipeline”. (That is of course when they aren’t chanting, “Windmills Not Oil Spills!”)

It is great that people can get themselves involved in government in the middle of the week. And we understand that certain landowners have been freaked out by the misinformation that these and other groups have been pouring on them ad nauseam over the past year.

But we still note that the other Keystone Pipeline that crosses Nebraska sailed through just fine.

And that all the experts will tell you that this will be the safest and most technologically efficient pipeline built.

98 comments

Mrs. Jane “Ive Starnes” Kleeb was interviewed on KFAB the day before their “big” protest rally. When asked why she opposes the KeystoneXL pipeline project, Ms. Starnes first rationale was something like “We need to stop using oil and use alternatives”. Unfortunately, the KFAB host didn’t think to ask Ms. Starnes just how she was going to get from her home to the state capitol in Lincoln. Was she walking? Was she riding a bicycle? Was she driving her solar-powered electric car? Or was she flying in on her broom with her troop of flying monkeys???

SS, the link to Goekce’s article is broken. I think the OWH has expired it.
We need to use less oil in the long term. In the short term, we would be better off getting oil from our allies (Canada) than our enemies (Venezuela). Kleeb has argued that the oil is not guaranteed to be sold to the United States, only refined here.
How safe are comparable pipelines? 10 minutes of research on the Trans-Alaska pipeline shows 4 major spills since 1977. (Wikipedia) Two of those are due human mischief directed at the above ground pipeline. I think the Keystone pipeline is supposed be underground.
Landowners that do not want a pipeline crossing their land will probably be subject to eminent domain. I object to that far more than “Big Oil”. It’s not building the pipleline that’s a problem, it’s the loss on landowner’s rights.

Nebraska media give Jane a platform and no tough questions because they know she is comic relief and a departure from the usual same diatribe. She provides color in the form of stuffed animals for the TV cameras and other eye-catching props so the media concentrates on the props and not the lack of substance in her message. It’s probably hard for the media to question her because they never know what “cause” she is touting from day to day. They are numerous and she is an “expert” on every issue. If the media was doing their job they would ask what happened to Steve Achepohl, Lisa Olivares and Jill Haller who were on Jane’s board and staff for mere months when they launched and then mysteriously disappeared from the BN website with no explanation. They would inquire about the Kleebs’ friendship with a Bossleman family from central Nebraska. Could those people possibly have ties to Bosselmans’ Truck Stops, merchants of Big Oil? Would that be the least bit hypocritcal for Jane to be best buds with people who make money off petroleum? If they are not from that family of truck stop owners, then Jane should come out and deny it. But no, the media enjoy giving Jane a platform as a counter balance to the heavy Republican/conservative themes that dominate Nebraska politics. As long as the media give her a pass and a platform, Jane will continue laughing all the way to bank. Her financier, Dick Holland, must be totally clueless.

Meh. I say let them do their thing. As SS repeatedly points out, their efforts on other issues have not been successful. So if they want to plant their big, expensive “kiss of death” on this issue as well, shut up and let them. You all should be encouraging the beany baby handouts and trash bag flash mobs.

Also Julie, your implication that BN is using distasteful marketing techniques to get people to agree with them could not be more hypocritical. I know you and NRTL oppose all things liberal, but I’m worried that weighing in the pipeline issue will dilute your brand. And let’s not forget about the lives of our unborn native grass species – they are sacred as well.

Lets run this pipeline through Omaha. and let a bunch of Canucks use eminent domain to take your backyards, then demand you carry an excessive high amount of liablity insurance on your own land just in case someone gets hurt, or property gets destroyed because of their pipeline. No hyperbole here, go read the lease. You are talking millions in property tax, so Gov. Dave isn’t about to stir this pot. My complaint about the whole deal is where do we give Canada the right to claim our land? I think the pipeline is safe enough. Probably more petroleum distillates wash off the parking lots and stalls in Omaha than leak out of the thousands of miles of pipelines already buried in this state

Gov Dave has already accepted his thirty peices of silver, so he won’t get involved in this. He is a politician, so he will let the Legislature deal with it. Like they don’t have enough to do this session?.

5. Senator Conrad despite your fondness of snowplows and Jager Bombs your race you have clearly won. But ditch that glossy red lipstick honey, you have your constituents on the run.

4. Councilman Jerram many in Omaha were upset with your willingness to tax, It’s time to not only cut the fat out of the city’s budget there pudgy it’s your gut that needs the axe.

3. David Nabity thinks his money and friends will recall Suttle and he will win the Mayor’s race. Get over yourself already baby, you need some botox for your face.

2. Jim Suttle your clothing style is so drab you need a change to you can sell Omaha Voters your Mayoral case, I suggest you call your fashionable consultant buddies Gary and Ace.

1. Jane Fleeming Kleeb this past year you have fought against oil companies and to give school lunches a healthy choice, What the people of Nebraska really want sweetie is for you to muzzle your voice!

The Dems are raising hell over on the NDP blog about what a hypocrite Gov. Heineman is because he’s having inaugural events across the state. They claim this is irresponsible, that he should be more austere, setting an example for us all. Kind of like they do with their Morrison-Exon dinner, their 2008 bash at the Omaha Hilton on election night, their big golf tournament fundraisers, etc., etc.

Do you suppose that Mike Meister would have toned it down had HE won the election? I didn’t think so.

Personally, I’d like to see the Governor have about ten more events around the state – each one catered by yet another Nebraska business. Now THAT would stimulate our economy and help us all out. What do the Democrats have against Nebraskans that get paid to cater these events? I think it is pure jealousy.

Nebraska has 21,000 existing miles of oil and natural gas pipelines.
Several of these already cross over lands above acquifers. No spills I’ve ever heard of.
Dick* & Jane** are just acting out their little anti big business fantasy like the rock throwing protesters at the G20 type meetings, only using a website and some brainless media sympathizers.
“Bold Nebraska” is doing an admirable job trying to make “Nebraskans for Peace” look less kooky.

Right on SS! My thinking is that Kleeb is trying to keep Scotty in the public eye by having more “balls” then he by doing these stunts. Picking this pipeline, “flavor of the week” agenda was a bad mistake for Mrs. Kleeb for countless reasons. As I posted before somewhere, she’s going to have to do a lot of back paddling to undo the bad PR she’s created for “Team Kleeb” by picking this non issue to play with! When I once interviewed her, I asked her why she didn’t run for US Congress or some other office, as she sure seemed to revel in the political, she just smiled. So what does everyone think, if Kleeb moved to the Big “O” might she perhaps kick LT’s lame ass???

Ah, but y’all have missed the biggst irony of all. What were the beanie babies made of? The synthetic plush is polyester; the filling polyethylene beads. And what are polyester and polyethylene, class?
Yes, that’s right, icky PETROCHEMICALS. As in oil.

So to protest an oil pipeline, these great leftist intellectuals handed out toys made 100% from crude.

Oh, and the plush toy they handed out they claimed was a meadowlark, doesn’t look remotely like a meadowlark. But let’s face it, neither Jane Kleeb or Mary Pipher would recognize a meadowlark if it shat on their heads.

While the economy is limping along, Democrats are working hard to ensure that whatever gains the little people might eke out are quickly gobbled up by higher energy prices. When it comes to the economy, the Left is all kinds of world-class clueless.

Call me insensitive, or senile, or just irrelevant, but every time this pipeline thing comes up, all I can think of is the old joke about Virginia Pipeline (pronounced “Pip-i-lin-ee when you’re telling the joke) being laid by 5000 workers. It was a real thigh-slapper back in the day.

I was born and raised in the Sand Hills … trust me when I tell you that there is precious little anyone, oil companies included, could do to make them more dreary, desolate, or unappealing than they already are.

Bold Nebraska (and Leavenworth Street) could surely find more significant issues upon which to expend their not insignificant bloviating capital.

The “entire scientific community” what? Believes in man-made global warming? That is simply false. Even you attempt to steal some bases, by referring to “global warming”. The earth’s whole history is marked by periods of warming and cooling– no one denies this. Or that, when temperatures rise globally, then something called “global warming” has occurred. The debate is over “man-made global warming”– or “man made climate change” as it is referred to when the predicted warming inconveniently fails to occur. And, yes, it remains a debate — despite the amount of money and praise that is showered upon the alarmists’ supporters, and despite how the skeptics are derided by our self-proclaimed elites.

The sandhills are a very unique system. It supports a huge cattle industry. Putting oil into the water would ruin the sandhills for more than a generation. Much less what it would do to people. But what do idiots care about the earth and the proper way to take care of it, when they might make a profit off hurting it.

curb feeder get out of fox news and read some facts. Yes the killer was nuts. But so are the Tea party and Sara Palin. read.

Giffords herself has drawn the ire of the right, especially for her support of the health care bill from politicians like Sarah Palin.

Her Tucson office was vandalized a few hours after the House vote to approve the health care law in March, with someone either kicking or shooting out a glass door and window. In an interview after the vandalism, Giffords referred to the animosity against her by conservatives. Palin listed Giffords’ seat as one of the top “targets” in the midterm elections because of the lawmakers’ support for the health care law.

“For example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action,” Giffords said in an interview with MSNBC.

5:20 pm. I say again, a REPUBLICAN JUDGE WAS MURDERED. So you think Sarah Palin had that done to cover up an attack on a Democrat Congresswoman who was a NRA supporter?

Every elected person gets threats. Political offices are often valdalized. Crap happens in politics. But that BS isn’t bullets.

This shooter wasn’t, as you say, “nuts”. That excuses his choice to use bullets over ballots. His crime against freedom and society. A Republican Judge, Democrat Congresswoman… and even a child. A child was murdered. A tea party child?

New news out about that shooter of the people in Arizona. He made an anti government u tube video. He was targeting the Congresswoman. The other people who got shot were just in the way. It looks like Sara Palins words about targeting this person are coming home to roost. .No one thinks that Ms. Palin wanted her dead. But her stupid comments time and time again have caused problems. This time it may have cost people their life’s. Very sad. What is really sad is that people are DEAD. The other sad item is that words by important Tea party leaders may have helped cause the shooter to go over the edge. If Obama had said anything like that, the Tea party leaders would have went viral. Boy would he be in trouble! But now is not the time to fight. Now is the time to pray.

Sounds like some Tea party people are wondering where it all went wrong when their words turned into violence. It does not sound to me any one is trying to take advantage of the situation. Just people who are sorry and laying out the facts and the history of how all this came about. If some one kills because of what Rahm Emanuel says that can be discussed. and should be. But the Congress lady said more than a year ago some thing like this was going to happen. So did the much malgined Nancy Pelosi. This is a bad situation and the reasons why it happened have to stop now. Either you can be on the side that wants to stop violence or you can just make your excuses that we can’t doing anything about it. or that people are just trying to take advantage of it. Like SS said and Curb feeler said. People are fed up with hate speech. Now it is hate violence caused by these hates speech makers. enough is enough. .

Glad to see that the leftwing loons already have their marching orders. Never let a good crisis go to waste, right? You guys stay classy as you dance with glee on a dead child’s corpse while you try to salve the pain of getting spanked in November. I realize that spouting BS like you are doing is a long and valued tradition in the democrat party (see bill Clinton), but that doesn’t make it any less pathetic.

To the ignorant ones seeking political gain out of tragedy, the representative was a gun rights supporter, a proponent of stronger border control and one of the votes against Pelosi just this week. Not exactly the hated enemy of the right. It was a senseless act done by an imbecile.

On a lighter note, Channel six just referred to – and printed in graphic form – Representative Fortenberry as an Iowa Congressman.

SS, this is my rant, delete it if you like.
“Well tea party fools you tied to murder a congress lady today what is next?” -Anon 4:45
“Glad to see that the leftwing loons already have their marching orders. Never let a good crisis go to waste, right?”-Mac Daddy

*Sigh* This is why I’m no longer supporting political parties. I’ve watched a lot of news today. The most poignant thing I saw was Representative Giffords reading from the Bill of Rights in the house chamber on Thursday. I think this is what she read:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ”

So we can express our dissent, in almost any way we choose. We do not choose wisely. I realize that the comment section of blog is not expected to be civil. But I think it should be, and I think you should both ask yourself some questions.
-What if those “tea party fools” are really freaked out about the course that our government has taken lately? Are they still fools? Or are they very scared and angry people who petitioned the government for a redress of grievances?
-What if those “left wing loons” are really freaked out watching their neighbors lose their house because they couldn’t pay medical bills? Are they still loons? Or are they very scared and angry people who petitioned the government for a redress of grievances?
There really important issues that need solving right now. They deserve your full attention and your full consideration. Your fellow citizens deserve more than snark and insults. Your country deserves more than that. The ship is on freaking fire, one of you is on the right side and one of you is on the left side and you are throwing gasoline at each other. You’re not helping us, any of us. No one will have a better life if the entire tea party knows you think they are fools or the entire left wing knows you think they are loons.

For God’s or Buddha’s or Flying Spaghetti Monster’s or whatever diety you hold dear’s sake, listen to the other side. The water’s rising, and you need to put down the gasoline and start bailing.

I hope both of you someday go to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I have never been to a place that is more beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. I hope you look at those empty chairs and ponder the effects of someone who was driven by hatred and fear of his government to destroy so many lives. Look at the results of that hate, and ask yourself if you want to make more.

More and more evidence is coming out this shooter was a right wing loon. Yes they are trying to say he was a liberal in his youth., But not now. He targeted the Congresswoman. Does that mean that all tea party and and right wing loons are gulity . NO. of course not. No liberal thinks that. But we do wonder if the shoe was on the other foot. What the reaction of the right would be. The congressman was a blue dog type democrat. A lot like a Ben Nelson. She voted for the health care bill and all hell broke out. All of her other votes were forgotten by the right wing fringe of this nation. They just went nuts on all people who voted for the health care law. These people brought guns to rallies they talked about putting their opponents in the cross hairs . Well America has seen their hate and what it has caused. Like Omaha Independent said it is time to stop throwing gas on one another. Being a proud liberal i never could figure out why the right hated me so much. i have a right to my opinions. Yet the right never respected that. I said you can say what you want. Just don’t make up facts. So maybe now in all this grief and terrible times. Something good can come out of it. Maybe the right will leave their guns at home when it is time to come to rallies. Maybe the right will say. i disagree with liberals. But i am not going to put them in my cross fires any more. Maybe the right will not get after me for being different from them. If you want to support people filled with hate like Beck, Limbaugh, Palin. go ahead . America has always had a fringe. The No nothing party. KKK. America first, John Birchers, Aryan Nation. Now Tea Party. Just don’t kill. OK.

I am so disgusted by those exploiting this tragedy to attack the right.

The shooter appears to have been a nut. Yet he’s being painted as a angry right-winger. An angry right winger who lists the Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books– that’s a pretty big tent.

The Sheriff in Pima County who is now a hero on the left described the Arizona illegal immigration law “stupid and racist” a few months back. Well, what was he saying about those who supported it, then? Could calling this nut a stupid racist (if he supported this law) have driven him to violence? Who knows? He is a nut. But the Sheriff sure seems to have contributed to a fairly vitriolic discourse when it suited him. That’s not getting much press– and rightly so, because there’s no evidence it has anything to do with anything this nut did.

However, to some– CBS, the Times, MSNBC– the fact that Sarah Palin showed this district on a “target” map along with 20+ others is somehow germane here. Not that we know if this guy ever saw the map, or even knows who Sarah Palin is. It’s important to add her to this story– not because she’s hated on the left, mind you. Just because.

Dear “Disgusted”
It is you and the Gary & Jim’s, Tom Becka’s, Rush Limbaugh’s, Glen Becks, Bill O’Reily’s, Shawn Hannity’s, Not so objective Conservatives, Geolosers, Right Wing Professors and the rest of the venom spewing, vile rhetoric pushing, anger mongers and jack as$es that all share modicum’s of culpability in creating these monsters. So, “Disgusted” take that with your morning joe. You cannot now disavow this crap.

“The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons — your Big Guns — to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win.” — Sarah Palin

Disgusted your so wrong it is not even funny. The right wing loon listed Hitler’s book also. Plus Alice in Wonderland. But it was Sara Palin who put the AZ congress lady in her sights. .So why did she take the web site down now. ? Even some people on FOX are stating the truth. When the facts like this blow up in your face. You either fight the hate that started it. Or your part of the hate. What is it?

No one I know on the “right” is a Hitler fan– that in itself is hate speech (suggesting those you disagree with on the right are like Nazis). Can’t you see that?

I saw Mara what’s her name from NPR say people will now have to think twice about calling people Hitler, or Nazis, or “Socialists.” What she doesn’t understand is that we actually have people in Congress who call themselves “Socialists”. They exist– it is an economic approach that some are fighting against in reality right now.

If calling someone a Socialist is the same as calling someone a Nazi, then we cannot even discuss current reality. Nazis don’t exist in DC — self-proclaimed socialists do. We are through the looking glass if discussing reality, and branding socialism as socialism, is wrong as hate speech, but it is OK to say the right in America is tied to this guy because he read Hitler’s book.

And we all know that everyone who uses a military or hunting analogy or rhetoric from Sarah Palin back to the dawn of time must be urging nuts to go kill people.

The “War on Poverty” was code for “go kill the rich”. Rahm’s rhetoric and stabbing cited by Sweeper above was meant to urge violence. Anyone who’s ever talking about “taking out” an incumbent was secretly urging they be killed.

It’s all clear to me now. The Democrat woman in AZ who posted on her blog that the representative who got shot was “dead to her” a few days ago for voting against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker is clearly also responsible. And she, too, took down her comment, so she must KNOW she’s guilty!

Keith Olbermann recognized his own poor choices of words in the past, and renounced them. The question is: Will those on the right do the same, and take responsibility for THEIR poor choices of words in the past? I’m guessing they won’t – they’ll be quick to blame this shooter as a far left nut who (inexplicably, of course) shot a left-side of the aisle Democrat and wash their hands of any responsibility.

And the blame-game will continue, with the argument centering around ‘both sides do it’ instead of recognizing that it was people like Sarah Palin who put a GUNSIGHT TARGET on this Congresswoman’s district, and TODAY felt the need to take that graphic down on her website. So…. if the gunsight graphic WASN’T a bad thing, why take it down, Ms. Palin?

And let’s not forget Ms Bachmann’s “I want citizens armed and dangerous” and Ms Angle’s “2nd Amendment remedies” and the radio hosts “If ballots don’t work, bullets will” statements. ALL from the RIGHT, I might add

Well, I’m glad Olbermann renounced his prior over-the-top rhetoric. Did he do it item by item? If so, he’d still be renouncing stuff as we sit here today.

Is it at all possible that since no one is pointing at Olbermann in all this, he felt safe in making his (probably insincere) mea culpa, so as to draw some on the right out into doing the same, even though the blame aimed at them is utter nonsense? Simply to be able to say, “See! They are responsible as charged! Tucker Carlson admitted it!”

I read some of the postings on here and I can’t help but believe there is a vast left-wing audience that is ready and eager to exploit the evil of ONE and use it to tag everyone they’ve ever disagreed with. HUNDREDS of Tea Party rallies have been held with THOUSANDS in attendance without ANYONE being shot or attendees being told to shoot anyone. Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, et al., have spoken to MILLIONS and have never told a single listener to shoot someone or said anything that could be construed as encouraging violence. So keep it real, people.

Relating to the topic: How much cow poop has leached into the aquifer?

I thought January 8th’s rant at 11:54PM was right on. It’s what I hear from those who are simply not that political as the right and left. I do polling and focus groups for a living so it is my business to know and maybe this is why people (like in the last city election) simply sit the dance out.

You seem to view calling someone a Nazi as the equal and opposite of calling someone a socialist. That is a major error. Nazism or Fascism are political systems who’s opposite would be Communism not socialism. Socialism is an economic system/theory who’s opposite is capitalism. Since you are obviously confused, can we assume that when you derisively refer to socialists in our government that you are equating them with Stalinists?

We do not live in a purely capitalist economy and NO ONE is advocating that we live in a purely socialist one. On the one extreme pure capitalists are not entitled to keep anything they can con their neighbors out of, and on the other pure socialists are not entitled to confiscate a portion of their neighbors wealth. By design, our government has both the obligation to regulate commerce and to protect the welfare of citizens.

If you fear the “socialists” in our government, the folks who support Social Security, you should fear equally the “capitalists” too, who despise all regulation.

I mentioned those things together (Socialism and Nazi-ism(sp?)) because Mara whatever-her-name-is did so on a roundtable this morning on TV. I understand the difference. She said we shouldn’t be calling each other Nazis or Socialists– my point was that we actually have self-proclaimed, proud Socialists in DC. It isn’t a stretch to describe a certain economic policy as “Socialistic”, and others as more Capitalistic.

But Nazis simply don’t exist in our government, and were the embodiment of evil in their day. Is it really as offensive to call someone on the left a socialist as it is to call someone on the right a Nazi? That was my point– Mara equates the two in offensiveness– I don’t see it.

The commenter above said the right can’t distance itself from this because the shooter also liked Hitler’s book. That is crazy– while there always has been and will be a fringe on both sides– no one I know on the right looks favorably on Hitler or his writings. If Hitler is your guy, you don’t have any affinity with the Tea Party, or Sarah Palin, or Mitt Romney, etc. And is just hate-filled rhetoric to say otherwise– oft-repeated. Who can forget the whole “Bush is Hitler”/BusHitler fad?

I’d also submit that if you go far enough, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between a Nazi-Fascist system, and a communist one– to those who have lived under either. Hitler murdered millions– Stalin murdered a few million more. Does it do any good to argue who was worse? Both extremes end up in the same place– an elite few controlling the masses. I know no one on the right advocating that. The shooter had both the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf — that would seem to place him where the two extremes meet as I said above (or just make him a nut, which is more likely).

On behalf of all sensible liberals, let me just say this: we do not think that this is all Sarah Palin’s fault. We are not saying that the Tea Party is the only organization making stupid statements with violent undertones. We are not saying that Loughner did what he did because he was encouraged by prominent Republicans. We are simply expressing our concern because someone shot a Democratic Congresswoman because she worked to further our agenda, and that is not to be taken lightly. Regardless of what role the heated rhetoric has played, we cannot ignore the political climate that led us to this point. All this arguing and finger pointing shows that many of you completely missed the lesson to be learned here.

Just because someone hands the figurative microphone to a liberal idiot, it doesn’t mean that person is speaking for the rest of us. Just ignore them like the rest of us do.

Like it or not, the anti-government rhetoric coming from the right for the last 30 years has tainted the public’s opinion both right and left about government and government’s role in our lives. That is wrong. We do not have to agree with every decision officials make, we can disagree and voice our disapproval or our approval but it must always be respectful; we must reconnect with the idea that government has and must play a role in our democracy.

Like it or not, there are parallels to what happened in Oklahoma City, the incident at Ft Hood and yesterday’s tragedy in Tucson. Each was connected to anti-government sentiments whether it was because of government action against militias, actions in fighting wars in Muslim countries or perceived beliefs about politics.

The incessant anti-government rhethoric or words which demonize any person, any legislation, any belief, any religion, any group, any government will ultimately result in violence at some point. Those words have been spoken far too often by the right especially the last two years, the volume was turned up to shrill. Then those who spoke some of those words the loudest and the most often claim the fault was the person not the rhetoric that spoke to the person.

We do not know the details of what this young man was thinking or why he did it. No doubt, he was unstable, had mental issues but the responsibility lies in the voices of those he heard preaching his view and to him what he heard was that he must take action to stop whatever evil he perceived. The discussion now should be about what can be done to stop the hateful and ugly rhetoric to prevent more of these incidents. I would remind Rush Limbaugh and those who deflect and continue to pretend that words have no consequences of this: among the dead was a 9-year old girl who was there because she was interested in learning about government

Hitler was a socialist. Mussolini was a socialist. Nazism was a brand of Fascism, but both were off-shoots of socialism along with communism.

I get a kick out of the left trying to place mistrust of the government at the feet of the right. Are you saying those Right wing millionaires in Hollywood were the ones putting out all those government conspiracy movies? Matt Damon is a closet conservative? Are you saying ANSWER and Code Pink are right wing organizations? I never heard the first liberal say that those guys need to tone down their rhetoric, even when they disrupted Congressional hearings while screaming about Chimpy BushMcHitler. I never heard anyone on the Left stand up and tell whoever it was shooting up recruiting stations and murdering Army recruiters to stop it. Or maybe the MSM should quit trying to claim that the rhetoric on the right is a call to violence in an effotr to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Again, you guys lost in Novermber. Have some dignity and class rather than trying to take advantage of a nut job shooting people.

Anon 4:47: Look to Obama. He’s The One who claims that dissent from his policies are ignorant, unpatriotic, and racist. The Left loves to demonize anyone who disagrees with them. So you can stop projecting. The Left is the side that presents an all or nothing view of government: if your kid goes to public school you should go along with every dumbass idea that comes out of Washington, or you hate government and want people to die rather than give them healthcare. (Congressman Alan Grayson – I didn’t hear anyone on the Left take him to task).

And if you are going to lump in the Right with the Ft. Hood shooter then you can go %^*$%&&*( yourself.

We all seem to think things are so different now, the rhetoric is much more heated, the vitriol greater, etc. Every generation thinks this.

It isn’t true, as history amply demonstrates. Another constant is the attempt to blame everything on the right. The JFK assassination, despite who Lee Harvey Oswald really was, the failed Times Square bombing (“Could be someone angry about Obamacare”), the Ft. Hood massacre (!) (see above), now this.

For most of the past century and a half the truly heinous accusations have come from the far right. Have you all forgotten Joe McCarthy’s hatemongering that falsely accused thousands of innocent Americans of being communists? What about all the people in the labor movement who were jailed or executed for their views when real evidence couldn’t be produced in the courts? If we applied the kind of justice that courts meted out to those on the left in the nineteenth century to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, they’d be well on their way through the kangaroo courts on their way to a death sentence for the reckless rhetoric they spew.

Sentence Fragments says “We are not saying that the Tea Party is the only organization making stupid statements with violent undertones.” I think he meant that as a concession to the Tea Party! But, of course, “stupid” is a subjective word and I defy him or anyone to find a violent undertone to a Tea Party statement. I went to the rally downtown and everything I heard embodied what Jefferson, Adams and the founding fathers wanted for this country.

And Anon 4:47 says “…the anti-government rhetoric coming from the right for the last 30 years has tainted the public’s opinion both right and left about government and government’s role in our lives.” Did the LEFT give anti-government rhetoric for the Patriot Act? For the Iraq War? For Gitmo? For the Bush tax cuts? Oh yes.

I’ve seen Tea Party rallies and the participants are spirited and never violent. I’ve seen video of G-20 protests by Leftists and they inevitably end up (probably planned) with the protesters reacting violently. What was going on outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in ’68? A violent riot by Leftists against a Democrat (Daley) controlled governmental police force.

One side doesn’t own the government, the opposition, or the truth. But it’s been my experience the Left does like to infuse its protests with excessive emotion often leading to extreme violence.

This is why we don’t just ignore the rhetoric of the Liberal Idiots, as you called them. The sheriff of Pima said TODAY on TV that the shooting had to do with an “atmosphere” created when “one party is trying to do something to make this country a better country and the other party is trying to block them.” The party trying to “do something to make the country better” is, of course, the Democrats. The party trying to “block them” is the Republicans.

But he’s not responsible for any hatred or extreme rhetoric, mind you. Just ask him. He deplores it.

Nazism and Fascism are not based on socialism. That may be what you learned at Glen Beck’s school of alternate reality, but it is incorrect. They both subscribe to radical right-wing militarism as a method to unite the general population in support of the ruling elite. Those elite ruling types included the likes of Krupp and IG Farben – the Nazis turned over much of the industrial infrastructure of the areas they captured to those for profit corporations. They never even considered retaining them as colectively owned state assets to be used for the welfare of the general population.

For what it’s worth, and I know we can’t do links, but Drudge has an interesting story. The Daily Kos (that bastion of liberalism) had a post by an Arizonan who wrote before the shooting “My CongressWOMAN (Giffords) voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!” (DK is scrubbing their site of it).

TD, how stupid can you be. Saying someone is “dead to me” doesn’t mean in any possible way that you wish a person dead. Just means you won’t have anything more to do with that person. Amazing how people can twist a statement or idiom to mean whatever they want it to, damn logic and the English language.

Well, 10:04, the Republican party is completely top-down. Do as you are ordered, and do not criticize the leaders. Fahleson took pride in dressing his young daughter as Jon Benet Ramsey on Halloween 2009 and posted this to his own blog. What a creep!

10:04, SS may think he/she is deleting these posts, but if you just subscribe to the RSS feed, you and anyone else can get them before they are deleted from the blog. Just append /comments/feed/ to this site’s URL.

Before I go to bed I just had to comment how much in agreement I am with Omaha Independent’s post yesterday at 11:54 PM. I definitely consider myself one of those that Anonymous 2:50 PM refers to however I have voted in every election since I was legally able to do so. Being a registered Independent for many years now, i use to be a registered Republican but I don’t see myself going back any time soon – perhaps never. Last I heard the number of Independents are growing – FAST.

For the record I blame no one except the one who pulled the trigger for this tragedy.

Well, will you look at that. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had a map with shooting targets on it designating Republican Congressman they’d like to pick off…oh, in the election, of course. I’m sure it was all very innocent. Of course, their map went up a year before Palin’s map. That Palin is such a plagiarist.

. . . This is truly shocking — from Palin’s Facebook page . . . a comment that was NOT removed, among all the negative comments about her that WERE removed . . . “”It’s ok. Christina Taylor Green [the 9-year-old girl who was killed] was probably going to end up a left wing bleeding heart liberal anyway.

Again the right is at fault this time. When the left is at fault we will talk about their problems. The thing that is maybe most accurate, is that the moderate mainstream republicans, don’t want to have anything to do with the tea party num nuts and Sara Palin and other merchants of hate. But these murders won’t stop the Glen Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world. Today you bet they will take no blame. Not a lick. Then a couple weeks after the funerals, they will be back in top form preaching their hate. But my question is this, Since i all i ever hear is that since the terrorist are Muslims all Muslims are terrorists. Since this Arizona killer is a white Christian. Are all white Christians murders?

What has the Tea Party or Sarah Palin ever said that was hateful? Does someone saying something that YOU hate therefore make THEM “hateful”? Sure sounds like it. To tell the truth, it sounds like you’ve got hate for all of those you mentioned.

Huh? are you lost? The Tea party and Sara Palin are always saying or doing something hateful. Why the heck do you think they have been doing for the last 2 years? Why do you think all forms of the media having been focusing on their words and their actions for the last two years. Especially the last two days. Did you not hear what the Sheriff from Tuscon said? Who do you think he was talking about? The Dolli Lama? You must have drank very deeply from the right wing koolaide if you don’t see just a glimpse of it. Even the people on FOX have been saying it. If you don’t realize now what is going on you are a lost cause. Even George Wallace realized he was wrong .

You don’t see liberals going to political rallies with guns. Just Tea party nuts. We need to really work on reforming our gun laws in this nation. I hear the Tea party wants to get rid of the 14th and the 17th amendments of the constitution. How about we fix the second. Not get rid of , fix it. Oh i bet that will cause a sh!@## storm don’t mess with our guns we a have right to them. Well people have a right to life also. Or that all time favorite Guns don’t kill, people kill. Well those people are using guns. No one said anything about getting rid of hunting . Just reform the law. Won’t happen should not have brought it up. NRA too powerful. Too much money involved and you Know conservatives can’t stop that profit margin for anything.

MacDaddy,
Krugman won’t take my calls, because I don’t think we should just keep spending. And who is this “you guys” you keep lumping me with? I was about 50/50 win/loss on my votes in November. I might even vote for a Republican president in 2012, if they put up a credible candidate. Hey, it could happen! I just want more issues discussed and less name-calling.
OI

Huh? Either you don’t know how to read. or you’re deaf and blind. Talking to people like you is hopeless. You’re like the little kid who made the mess, it is all over his hands who is screaming I did not do it. But I will give you some examples. Did you see the Tea party rally when those conservatives brought guns to? Or did you hear any of Sara Palin’s speeches about shoot and re load on liberals.? Or see her cross hairs web site? Or just about any Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh broadcast. But I am sure you will have an excuse . People like you always have an excuse.

Back to the point of the article. As a resident and landowner in the Sandhills, who is affected by the proposed route of the Keystone XL, there are so many more issues involved in the siting of this pipeline than simply being anti-oil. There are grave concerns about the reclamation of the land. There are areas that have taken decades to heal once the topsoil has been broken. Perhaps that doesn’t mean anything to most, but to the landowner, it is a serious concern. The predominant wind will scour the surface and erode the fragile cover from the area where the pipeline is laid. In some cases, there could be not just inches, but feet of sand blown from the disturbed area. This removes land from production and costs ranchers. This area is so different than the route of the first Keystone and the reclamation of the land will have to be much more intense. Unfortunately, the TC rhetoric that “we know the sandhills, we have sandhills in Canada” is not reassuring. It is true that Jim Goeke said that the entire aquifer would not be at risk, but in the areas where the aquifer lies on top of the ground as it does in many areas of Holt County, this water drains into the watersheds. A spill or leak in this area, or under one of the many rivers and streams the pipeline is proposed to go under, could result in a much greater area of contamination. But not to worry, this pipeline will not leak. I bet that’s what people in Michigan and Utah were told too. The threat of eminent domain is also a great concern. The pressure on landowners to sign easements carries the implied threat of condemnation. I feel it so wrong to allow a foreign entity the ability to condemn land. This is not a public utility company, it is a private foreign entity. I also think that many of those who signed their easements did so because they felt they had no choice.To those who feel this will help our dependence on foreign oil and it is better to get oil from a freindly ally, I must respond that there has never been a promise that this oil is destined for the U.S. market. It will be sold to the highest bidder. At one of the first meetings I attended with TC representatives, it was stated that the oil was going to China. They have backed off of that statement now, but we (U.S.) have never been guaranteed that the oil is for U.S. use. One of the reasons I am so skeptical about the whole proposal is that the responses to questions to every TransCanada representative I have listened to has been different. I guess we are supposed to feel comfortable signing an easement that is interpreted differently by each V.P or representative. But what does it matter, if we don’t sign “willingly”, they can take it anyway.

Sandhills, thanks for your remarks. I’ve been surprised that more Nebraskans aren’t cautious about this pipeline, not because of some kind of liberal anti-oil sentiment, but because of the basic disregard for the property owners and the uncertainty of the information we have about safety and mitigation. After the Kelo case, I thought conservatives recognized the seriousness of the eminent domain threat to property rights. Now it’s happening right here in Nebraska and nobody seems to be worried? In addition, as you say, why should I trust what a Canadian company is saying about Nebraskan land, when they simply want us to agree so they can move their profitable venture forward? I want to hear from the actual experts on our unique Sandhills area, and from the property owners who will live with the consequences of what our state chooses here. I think this is a serious issue for conservatives to be concerned about.

I am responding to Carrie at Great Plains Tarsands Pipeline here because I don’t want to drive anymore traffice to their stupid website. This is in response to her “Another Day, Another Keystone Pipeline Spill” drivel –

Umm Carrie? You have more than 10 gallons of petroleum products spilled on the street/road in front of you house, probably some of it from YOUR car – or your mom’s, whatever.

When gasoline is $10 or more a gallon because people like Chavez, who hate you and me, are the only ones we can get crude from because you foolish children have forced TransCanada and other North American producers, who are OUR FRIENDS, to sell to China, we will remember you and your stupid vendetta. By then you will be too busy scraping the ground to find food that can’t be trucked to your house anymore, to bother with a 10-gallon spill onto a concrete pad in South Dakota.

I can’t wait for all you silly children to grow up and have to work for a living.